1919 Woodrow Wilson - Peacemaking

Wilson now faced the awesome problems of peace-making and the
reconstruction of the world order. Yet, even before the guns were silent
on the western front, he had gravely impaired his standing by appealing
for the election of a Democratic Congress in the off-year election of
1918, on the ground that the return of a Republican majority to either
house of Congress would be interpreted in Europe as a repudiation of his
leadership. The voters, on 6 November, elected a Congress with slight
Republican majorities in both houses. Whether repudiated or not, Wilson
proceeded with his own plans for the peace conference without seeking
Republican cooperation and support. On 18 November he announced that he
would go to the peace conference, scheduled to meet in Paris in January
1919, as the head of an American delegation that was not to contain a
single prominent Republican.

Wilson went to Paris in December 1918 determined to achieve a just and
lasting peace based upon principles of justice, humanity, and
self-determination and upon an effective world organization. All the
Allied leaders at Paris were motivated by particular selfish interests.
The French wanted large reparations from Germany and a settlement that
would remove forever the threat of German militarism from Europe. The
British wanted to exact huge payments from Germany, to annex former German
colonies, and to destroy the German navy but not destroy the balance of
power on the Continent entirely. The Italians had their eyes on former
Austrian territory in the Tyrol and along the Adriatic coast. The Japanese
demanded former German colonies in the Pacific and the former German
concession in the Chinese province of Shantung.

By all accounts, Wilson was the only disinterested principal leader at the
peace conference. He wanted nothing for the United States except a just
peace that would endure and a world organization that could maintain peace
in the future. Wilson fought as hard as any person could to achieve these
objectives. With British support, he was able to prevent the dismemberment
of Germany in the west, which the French demanded, and vetoed French plans
for a "great crusade" to crush the Bolshevik regime. With
British and French support, Wilson successfully resisted Italian demands
for territory along the Adriatic coast that was essential to the new state
of Yugoslavia.

Since Wilson had only one vote in the councils at Paris, his one
alternative to yielding or to compromising when the British and French
ganged up against him was to withdraw from the conference and make a
separate peace with Germany. During the direst controversy with the
French, Wilson threatened to leave the conference. But, as Wilson knew,
the cure in this case was worse than the disease. His withdrawal would
wreck his plans for a postwar world organization and result in a
Carthaginian peace imposed by the French.

Thus, Wilson yielded on the key question of reparations (the British and
French were permitted to demand potentially astronomical payments from
Germany) and compromised on the equally important question of French
control of the coal-rich Saar Valley of Germany. Moreover, the conferees
at Paris said nothing about disarmament. Even so, Wilson was able to
vindicate most of his Fourteen Points. Belgium, brutally overrun and
occupied by Germany in 1914, was restored. An independent Poland with
access to the sea came back into the family of nations. The claims of the
Central European peoples to self-determination were satisfied.
Alsace-Lorraine was restored to France.

Wilson's most important achievement at Paris was the creation of
the League of Nations and the inclusion of its covenant in the Treaty of
Versailles between the United States and the former Allies and Germany.
The covenant created elaborate machinery for the settlement of
international disputes and for united action against aggressors. Moreover,
the League was designated as the instrument to carry out the Versailles
and other treaties concluded at Paris.